Freelancing for Newspapers

Sue Fagalde Lick

Description

Pick up the Sunday paper and consider how many stories it takes to fill all those pages. How can any newspaper staff produce so many stories every day, every week, every month of the year and keep up with breaking news, too? They can't. They use freelancers.This book serves as a guide to newspaper freelancing both for beginners and for more experienced writers who want to expand their markets.

Informations

• Publié par: Linden Publishing
• Date de parution: 01 mai 2007
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781610350839
• Langue: English

Extrait

Praise for
Freelancing for Newspapers
"Anyone hoping to write for the newspaper market should stop everything and read Sue Fagalde Lick’s Freelancing for Newspapers. The chapter on generating story ideas is worth the price all by itself."
Dale Bryant, executive editor, Silicon Valley Community Newspapers
"Sue Fagalde Lick has done a wonderful job in demystifying the world of newspaper publishing and freelancing. As Lick points out, newspapers need new material every day and this book is a must for any writer who wants to tap into this huge, and often overlooked, market!"
Moira Allen, editor/publisher, Writing-World.com; Starting Your Career as a Freelance Writer
"Sue Fagalde Lick serves up enthusiastic and informative tips and information. Lick’s new book will help writers succeed in an area of freelancing that many haven’t even considered."
Angela Hoy, publisher, WritersWeekly.com
"Freelancing for Newspapers is an excellent text for aspiring freelancers. Sue Fagalde Lick covers all the bases in a clear journalistic style that her readers would do well to emulate."
Marcia Preston, novelist, former editor of Byline Magazine
"Sue Fagalde Lick has comprehensive guide that will have seasoned and beginning writers connecting with and serving the needs of local and national newspapers as quickly as five minutes after they finish reading."
Christina Katz, Writer Mama: How to Raise a Writing Career Alongside Your Kids
"This book is a must-have for any writer serious about garnering clips. Sue Fagalde Lick offers practical, hands-on advice as well as skill-building exercises geared toward both novice and experienced writers."
Robbi Hess, editor/co-publisher ByLine Magazine; co-author, Complete Idiot’s Guide to 30,000 Baby Names

Copyright © 2007 by Sue Fagalde Lick. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
Published by Quill Driver Books/Word Dancer Press, Inc.
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First printing
ISBN 1-884956-68-8 • 978-1884956-68-3
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lick, Sue Fagalde.
Freelancing for newspapers : writing for an overlooked market / by Sue Fagalde Lick.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-884956-68-3 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 1-884956-68-8 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Freelance journalism. I. Title.
PN2784.F76L53 2007
070.4’3 dc22
2007018138
For Fred, who put up with it all.
Contents
Introduction

1. Newspapers as a Freelance Market
2. Developing Newspaper Article Ideas
3. Types of Newspaper Articles
4. Queries: Pitching Your Stories
5. Researching Your Article
6. Conducting Effective Interviews
7. Writing the Newspaper Article
8. Rewriting
9. Getting Paid and Getting More Assignments
10. The Business of Being a Freelance Writer

Resources for Freelance Writers
Submission Tracking Sheet
The Author’s Bundle of Rights
Standard Manuscript Format
Acknowledgments
Index
About the Author
Introduction
There’s Gold in That Pile of Paper
One of the best markets for freelance writing may be sitting on your kitchen table right now. I’m talking about the newspaper. In fact, if you’re like me, you have a whole stack of newspapers piled on the table, on the counters, and beside your chair in the den. So do the people who could be reading your articles right now.
In the freelance writing world, newspapers are often overlooked. If you scan The American Directory of Writer’s Guidelines, Writer’s Market, and other major market guides, you will find that most of the listings are for magazine and book publishers. Yet newspapers constitute a big market for freelancers. Because there are so many newspapers and they come out so often, they require a lot of articles, usually more than the staff can provide. Freelancers fill in the gaps. They write feature stories, reviews, travel articles, profiles, and so much more.
Start looking at the newspapers that you read with an eye to freelance opportunities. Study the bylines. Staff writers are usually identified as such. Freelancers’ bylines are often followed by something like "Special writer" or "Special to The Oregonian." Sometimes there’s nothing after the name, but at the end of the article, you will see a few lines printed in italics that say something like, "Sue Fagalde Lick is a freelance writer living in South Beach, Oregon." Sometimes you see the same freelance bylines every week. These writers have managed to claim a niche in the paper for a regular gig.
Think about your work, hobbies and personal experiences. Are there subjects that you are especially interested in or knowledgeable about? You can turn this interest and knowledge into articles for your town’s daily or weekly newspaper. Specialized newspapers for antique collectors, fishermen, bridge players, and just about any group you can think of offer other outlets for your writing. Your church, your lodge, and the industry in which you work probably all publish local, statewide or national newspapers. These are also places where you could sell freelance articles.
In the pages that follow, we will look at these opportunities in depth.
This book was born out of my Freelancing for Newspapers and Opinionated Writing classes, which I still teach online and at various workshops. It felt like time to put all the information in one convenient place. Each chapter explores an aspect of the newspaper freelance business, followed by activities to use to put the information into action.
This book should help you begin, but neither this book nor the others I will recommend are enough to get you published in the newspapers. To write for newspapers, you must read newspapers. The more of a news junky you are, the better. Read newspapers cover to cover, looking for story ideas and freelance opportunities and getting a feel for newspaper style. Read every section sports, business, food, science, religion, news, whatever. Grab the free newspapers you find at libraries, stores and restaurants and the ones that come in the mail to you and to other family members. Those that don’t seem to use freelance are still valuable as sources of article ideas.
Maybe you prefer other types of writing and never thought of yourself as a newspaper writer. There was a time when I didn’t care much about newspapers either. Back in high school when I was choosing a career, I wanted to write poetry and short stories. However, knowing I needed to earn a living, I decided I would learn to write for magazines. When I arrived at San Jose State University for orientation, I discovered that the magazine major had just been eliminated. All of us would-be Atlantic Monthly editors had been transferred into "reporting and editing." Apparently God knows what he’s doing. I found that I enjoyed newspaper writing and I was good at it.
I earned my bachelor’s degree in journalism at San Jose State and started my career as an intern at the Milpitas Post, one of a chain of weekly newspapers in the San Jose area. In the years that followed, I spent nearly thirty years working as a staff writer, editor and photographer on various newspapers in California and Oregon. I also freelanced. A lot. I was a regular contributor to Bay Area Parent, San Jose Mercury News, High Technology Careers, Portuguese Heritage Journal, South Valley Times, and other papers. Eventually, I had enough freelance work to quit my regular job.
In recent years, I have rekindled an old interest in writing poetry and fiction and earned a master of fine arts degree in creative writing from Antioch University, Los Angeles, but I still feel most at home in what my grandfather used to call "the funny papers." In fact, I recently became the "baby boomer correspondent" for Northwest Senior News. Once you get hooked on newspapers, it’s hard to stay away.
Certainly in these days of CNN, online news, and cell phones that can access the Internet, you may wonder if newspapers are going out of style. They aren’t. They are adapting, just as they always have. Knowing that the electronic media will always scoop them with the headlines, they are offering more depth and variety, the stories that can’t be told in a two-minute news bite. They are also expanding into the Internet and other media.
Back in the 1800s, it could take a month to receive any kind of news from home. Long before that, people nailed pages to the sides of buildings. News comes faster all the time, and the way it is transmitted will continue to change. Although this book focuses on print newspapers, what you read here can also be used for the ever-